Maron (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Maron or Maro (Ancient Greek: Μάρων, gen. Μάρωνος) was the hero of sweet wine. He was an experienced man in the cultivation of the vine.

Family
Maron was the son of Euanthes (some also call him a son of Oenopion, Silenus, and a pupil of Silenus), and grandson of Dionysus and Ariadne. As the son of Bacchus and the Cretan princess, Maron was brother to Thoas, Staphylos and Eunous.

Mythology
Maron was mentioned among the companions of Dionysus. The city Maroneia in Thrace was named after its founder Maron; there he was venerated in a sanctuary. The god Osiris (Dionysus) left Maron, who was now old, in that land to supervise the culture of the plants which he introduced to the a city. "Maron who haunts the vines at Ismaros and, by planting and pruning them, makes them produce sweet wine, especially when farmers see Maron handsome and splendid, exhaling a breath sweet and smelling of wine."

Maron was also a priest of Apollo at Ismarus and the only one spared by the hero Odysseus when he pillaged the city. In Odyssey (9.200) before making Polyphemus drunk and fall asleep, Odysseus narrates:

..With me I had a goat-skin of the dark, sweet wine, which Maro, son of Euanthes, had given me, the priest of Apollo, the god who used to watch over Ismarus. And he had given it me because we had protected him with his child and wife out of reverence; for he dwelt in a wooded grove of Phoebus Apollo. And he gave me splendid gifts: of well-wrought gold he gave me seven talents, and he gave me a mixing-bowl all of silver; and besides these, wine, wherewith he filled twelve jars in all, wine sweet and unmixed, a drink divine.